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View Full Version : Epilog Laser scams on eBay



Luke Phillips
12-24-2006, 8:21 AM
By all accounts, the members of this forum are pretty savy folks - but, I just want to alert you to 'phishing' scams on eBay. For several months, a certain nere-do-well has been listing an "off-lease" Epilog laser on eBay. The catch is you must email them directly with questions rather than use the eBay contact method - because "that" feature doesn't work for them somehow. The email accounts are usually a .aol or .gmail. Once you have emailed your eBay user id - they've gotcha and your eBay account may be hijacked for other nefarious purposes. I have reported all these listings on a regular basis to eBay - they don't appear to be able to stop them in time. Moral of the story is - "if it's too good to be true......" Be careful on eBay!

Vicky Orsini
12-25-2006, 12:09 AM
I've been watching a few of these myself - not to buy, but just out of curiosity. There was one listing for an Epilog where there's an extra table motor, intended to be a replacement but never installed. What appeared to be the same machine was listed in Kentucky (I believe) first and then somewhere in the UK. Quite the well-travelled laser!

Dave Fifield
12-25-2006, 4:33 AM
Yep, you have to be careful - I've seen a few fake auctions on there too. They like lasers because they are high value items. They usually use other people's photos, so they're not too hard to spot.

Another trick, that they tried on me once, is as follows: they put in an obviously fake "buy-it-now" bid from a new account on one of your high value sales. You cancel the bid and report the activity to the auction house. They KNOW you'll be reporting them. Then, they send you a phishing email obstensibly from the auction house's security department, saying thanks for letting them know about the suspicious activity on your account, and please change your password (here's the link!) and please don't contact us, we'll contact you. Everything about the email is fine EXCEPT the password changing link, which goes to a VERY good copy of the auction house's login screen, but, of course, is completely bogus.

Stay safe, and have a great Christmas/New Year!

:Dave F.

Jim Huston
12-25-2006, 11:54 AM
I have a couple of these also. I usually send a message asking for the serial number and a photo of some odd part. Strange -- I don't get any answer back!
JimH

Neville Stewart
12-25-2006, 8:43 PM
Heres how you can usually stop this kind of stuff. Hit reply to the message, and copy the address that is shown, but then erase the name in front of the @ and type abuse. eg. abuse@gmail.com,close the reply message then forward the message to that address, this will ususaly be dealt with rather quickly by the ISP.

Rob Bosworth
12-26-2006, 2:06 PM
Great idea Neville. I wish I could send them an electrical jolt. Just enough to zap their computer, and maybe enough to give them a little tingle in their fingertips.:D

Mark Mullis
02-14-2007, 6:43 PM
I know this has been discussed before, but just thought I would alert some of the new readers out there, who are shopping for lasers. E-bay has a listing for a new epilog with only two hours on it, it has several bids on it, but when I sent the guy a question, he offered to give me a buy it now price of about $2900.00. He also offered free shipping.The ad has very little detail and only one picture, which shows a rotary attachment. The wording in the ad looks exactly like one I have seen before, but the seller listed has zero sales. It is either the deal of the century or a scam, I am thinking scam. 02/14/07

Luke Phillips
02-14-2007, 7:28 PM
Its a scam - run! BTW the "seller" did not put a buy it now option in the listing so he/she can't do that anyway. Yeah - this is the same listing description that's been running for months - from all over the US! Too bad they now have your email address.:eek:

Kim Vellore
02-14-2007, 8:17 PM
Is this the auction you are talking about? 250083568653
It has 6 days left. The same seller posted this listing same wording and pic
on item #120083838616 which was removed by ebay and the seller was no longer a registered user. I notified ebay about this and they have not removed this listing so they think this is genuine.

Kim

Dave Fifield
02-15-2007, 4:05 AM
Thanks for the heads up on this one guys. A friend of mine who's looking for a good secondhand laser was interested in this one (250083568653). I emailed the seller and asked a bunch of questions and for more photos. He sent me some photos, but not of what I asked for (so he probably doesn't actually have the laser), plus he never answered most of my questions (simple stuff like if there was a manual with it and if it had the original packing materials etc.). Stay away from this one.

Anyone had any dealings with the folks at www.laserxchange.com (http://www.laserxchange.com)? There are some reasonable looking deals on there that my buddy is looking at. I'd be interested to know if anyone has anything to say.....good or bad.

Cheers,

Rob Bosworth
02-15-2007, 1:10 PM
Hey Kim, I just wonder who the 21 bids are from. Who would bid on a machine that states nothing about the machine.

"Laser Engraver Epilog Legend Here is a new, well almost new, maybe... 2 hours on this machine. As several machines that wind up on ebay, I bought the laser from a dealer in Minneapolis for a project that never happened! I played with it for a couple of nights when I first bought it and that was it. It just sits and collects dust, well the cover I kept on it collected dust. I you are considering buying new then you may have found your laser. I turned it on and everything worked GREAT. This machine does have auto focus! Rotary attachment is included. The exhaust fan is not included. IMMACULATE!!!


Who would place a bid on something that has absolutely no description of what it is? Size of machine? Laser Power? Year manufactured? And yet, there have been 21 bids and the machine bid price is up to $ 4,325. I wrote and aasked the seller a question. His answer was pretty sharp, but he still avoided answering my questions.

Dave Jones
02-15-2007, 1:31 PM
Chances are some of the bids are from the seller and their friends. The rest are maybe from people thinking they're getting a super deal, no matter what the details are.

Kim Vellore
02-15-2007, 2:00 PM
In the original listing the seller had stated he was from San Jose and I had emailed him a few questions about the machine and asked him if I could see the machine, there was no reply. This is his second listing with a different name and location. I am not looking for a laser but I will stay away from this even if it was for free and I were to pay only for shipping.

Kim

Dave Jones
02-15-2007, 2:13 PM
Actually this same picture and description was used in November by another seller who is also no longer a registered member of ebay. That person was from San Jacinto, CA. The one a few weeks ago was from San Jose, NM. and this one says Mocksville, NC

Dave Jones
02-15-2007, 2:20 PM
And the 21 bids were made by 9 bidders. Bidder #8 (who has a very low feedback rating) has raised the price from $1100 to $4300 in the past 2 days. I'm guessing a shill (but that's just a personal guess)

Mark Mullis
02-18-2007, 6:33 PM
Just a little update on the e-bay scams, as of 02/18/07 the epilog discussed earlier is now up to $100,100.00, which I thought must had been a typo at $100,000.00 but then someone raised it to the $100,100.00 mark. I think someone must be jerking the scammers chain. There is also a 30 watt explorer, that is brand new for sell. This item seemed ligitament a few weeks ago when it was listed but did not meet the reserve price, but now it appears again with the same wording and story, but with a different seller in a different town. Be careful out there!

Dave Jones
02-18-2007, 7:35 PM
There are a couple of people on another forum that did that to protect innocent buyers from the scammer. They also reported the scam to ebay, but so far they are still "investigating".

Mike Hood
02-18-2007, 8:58 PM
Must be a nice machine... it's up to $111,211.11

:D

Dave Fifield
02-19-2007, 2:32 AM
It still shows up if you do a search on the auction number, but if you click on the auction you are now presented with the standard "auction withdrawn" verbage. Thankfully, no one will get scammed this time. I'm sure it will come up again in a few weeks though...

Dave Jones
02-19-2007, 6:33 PM
No doubt with a new seller and new location.

Allan Wright
02-22-2007, 10:33 AM
There was another scam engraver auction that popped up yesterday, but it was quickly removed. It was the same Explorer II that's been put up as a scam 2 other times.

Amazingly scary....

Mike Gaston
02-22-2007, 5:56 PM
I've seen that exact listing word for word four times in the last year. Its always a different seller and location.

Allan Wright
02-22-2007, 7:21 PM
You've heard of the game show, "Deal or No Deal" ?

Let's play "Scam or No Scam".

New listing: #280086101288

I've put an e-mail into the seller with the appropriate questions:

1) Can I pick it up?
2) Can you post a readable photo of the id plate?
3) Can I stop by and inspect it before bidding

We'll see how he holds up

Joe Pelonio
02-22-2007, 7:27 PM
You've heard of the game show, "Deal or No Deal" ?

Let's play "Scam or No Scam".

New listing: #280086101288


First off that's an OLD laser.

All of his feedback is from sellers, for things he's bought. Hmmmm.

Allan Wright
02-22-2007, 11:58 PM
It is an old laser, but it's price accordingly. His buyout is only $2500.

Still, your point is well taken.

For me it will not be a primary business. My business is of hobby in nature, so my volume will be much lower than average, and the occiasional downtime for repairs, tolerable.

Dave Jones
02-23-2007, 1:37 PM
That auction has ended. Somebody used Buy It Now.

Allan Wright
02-23-2007, 2:02 PM
That auction has ended. Somebody used Buy It Now.

Someone braver (or more stupid) than I did.